Good afternoon!

It’s a great honor for me, on behalf of All China Environment Federation (ACEF), to attend “Fair Ideas – Sharing Solutions for A Sustainable Planet” hosted by International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), make a presentation at “Defending the public: participation, future generations, and sustainable development” workshop, and have opportunities to share sustainable issues with experts and scholars from all around the world. Now I would like to brief you on the development of China’s environment NGOs. But before that, I would like to express my gratitude and thanks to IIED, Foundation for Democracy and Sustainable Development World Resources Institute, the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis at the University of California, and for their preparation for this workshop.

The environment NGOs in China began to develop since early 1990s. Over the past 20 years, more than 4,000 organizations came into existence. Guided by China’s strategy of sustainable development and building up an environment-friendly and energy-efficient society, they have made positive efforts on exploring new solutions to address various and complicated environmental issues around China such as energy conservation and emission reduction, addressing climate change, biodiversity protection, desertification control and wetland conservation. In China, such environment NGOs help raise public awareness on environmental protection, guide the enterprises to take environmental and social responsibilities, and advance the development of a legal system on environment protection in China and national sustainable development through various promotional events.

ACEF, as one of the key Environmental NGOs, has enrolled about 20,000 members from all walks of life since its establishment in 2005. With the philosophy of “Great China, Great Environment, Great Union” (in other words, to unite all the people of the whole China to protect environment), it has developed into one of the most influential NGOs on environment protection in China. Now, I would like to showcase to you the work that China’s Environmental NGOs have done and their work model while taking ACEF as an example.

First, raise public awareness on environmental protection with publicity and educational activities. Since its establishment, ACEF has carried out more than a hundred events for public interests, such as green family, charity concert on environmental protection, household energy conservation and waste classification, ecological tourism, Yellow River protection and technical consultation on environmental protection. With the participation of hundreds of enterprises and media and millions of people, the concept of environmental protection was introduced into every household.

Second, safeguard the rights on environment and protect the environmental rights and interests of vulnerable groups. Under the guidance of the Ministry of Environmental Protection, the Legal Service Center of ACEF carried out various activities to safeguard people’s environmental rights and interests. Over the past six years since its establishment, it has processed 564 cases concerning environmental pollution, among which 301 have been handled properly or settled. Among the six lawsuits we filed as the plaintiff in the capacity of environmental protection organization, we won 2 of them, providing practical reference for establishing China’s lawsuit system for environment and public interest. In addition, we provided legal aid to 50 environmental cases, saving a direct economic loss of over 30 million RMB. Meanwhile, we gave into full play the power of media in publicity and supervision. Together with CCTV, we reported the pollution caused by an industrial park in Zhetang Town, Lishui County, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, and finally addressed the pollution there which lasted for 35 years.

Third, give into full play the role of government and society as a bridge and build up a platform for public participation. From 2006 to 2011, in collaboration with other Environmental NGOs, we have held the “Annual Meeting of China’s Environmental Civil Society Organizations on Sustainable Development” for six times in a row, where representatives from thousands of organizations discussed problems concerning sector development and action strategies. In 2006 and 2008, we published Development Situation Report on China’s Civil Environmental Organizations respectively, and actively guided Environmental NGOs to develop in a sustainable way.

Fourth, offer recommendations for government to facilitate its decision making. Environment and Development Forum is a high-level forum on environmental strategies hosted by the Ministry of Environmental Protection of PRC and organized by ACEF. It has been held for seven times from 2005 to 2011 with participants from all walks of life home and abroad which submitted sixty-four constructive proposals and suggestions to the Chinese government and published seven conference proceedings.

Fifth, guide enterprises to adopt low carbon development path. On one hand, we helped enterprises transform their mode of production and reduce pollution emission by providing services on environmental impact assessment, company's IPO and technical consultancy on environmental protection verification for refinanced listed companies. On the other, we introduced new environment-friendly technologies, new techniques and equipments for energy conservation and emission reduction to the society and advocate green consumption among the public.

Sixth, broaden channels for international exchange and promote people-to-people communication and cooperation. ACEF has obtained consultative status with UN ECOSOC and UNEP, and is now a member of International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and one of the initiators of World Low Environmental Federation (WLEF). In terms of international cooperation, we got support from UN Democracy Fund, Small Grant Programe of UNDP GEF, the Bloomberg foundation on the programs of promoting the protection of environmental rights and interests and the legal rights of pollution victims, demonstration project of Household Energy Saving and Emission Reduction in Wangjing, and Tobacco Control Program. Up till now we have had 15 international visits including the US, Singapore and Denmark. ACEF President Song Jian has led the delegation to attend many important international conferences such as Paris Global Conference on Ecosystem Management and Global Civil Society Forum and received visits of delegations from 18 countries.

These are the specific work that ACEF has done. As one member of China’s Environmental NGOs, I personally believe that as a third part (civil society organization), China’s environment NGOs should ally with all quarters of society in various forms, such as offering suggestions to the governments by establishing communication mechanism, guiding enterprises on the path of low carbon development by offering consultation and practicing supervision, working with the media to launch public interest programs on environmental protection and raise public awareness and participation, so as to safeguard the interests of the public and promote sustainable development and progress in China and the world at large.

Thank you!